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House Ragara
Members of House Ragara are content to work behind the scenes in the Realm and avoid the kinds of spectacle on which other Houses seem to thrive. Their subtlety has paid off handsomely. Members of House Ragara take pains to get along with all of the other Dynastic Houses. They are just as likely to be found at a Cynis orgy as at a parade review of the Sesus legions or a tour of the V’neef vineyards. They take a polite interest in what all the Houses are doing and extend diplomats of all sorts to maintain a friendly ongoing relationship with every House and household. If other Houses are the bricks of the Scarlet Empire, House Ragara fancies itself the mortar keeping the Dynasty together. MASTER OF THE HOUSE Although Ragara, the Empress’s firstborn, is still alive, he is happily retired, enjoying a life free of politics and manipulation. He is clearly at the end of his days and soon to pass on to his next incarnation. Until then, he lives with a handful of friends, scribes, guards and caretakers in a lavish villa provided for him by the Soras family. The Great House named after him is run by his favored son, Ragara Banoba. Banoba is a tall, powerfully built man whose slow speech and unhurried movement belie his quick and agile mind. Banoba rejoices when others judge him to be stupid. It marks them as targets for his schemes. Though he is an unusually honest man for a Dynast, he does like to fancy himself a con man on occasion. Banoba’s seemingly dull wit has led many powerful Dynasts to underestimate him—even once they should have known better. Banoba has served his House through several financially rewarding marriages to wealthy patrician women who lived their little life spans and then died in some distant wing of the manse. His true love, and the Dynast he’s grooming to take control of House Ragara, is a distant Dragon-Blooded nephew named Heral. For over a century, the two have shared a bed and a life and are nigh inseparable. MAJOR LINES The opulence of the Imperial Palace is home to most members of House Ragara. There are two offshoots of the main family, however, that dwell elsewhere. THE RAGARA SORAS HOUSEHOLD Making its home on Chin Jai Ru, the smaller of the two islands northwest of Eagle’s Launch (the larger one being Kyon), the Ragara Soras household has a clear appreciation for privacy. Primarily a merchant family, the Soras household manages most of the trade in the northern cities of the Blessed Isle, particularly in Eagle’s Launch, Bright Obelisk and Chanos. The Soras household also oversees most of the trade conducted by the Realm with northern city-states, including Gethamane and Whitewall (via the port town of Wallport). It also ships food, supplies and First Age artifacts to the Heptagram. The household members who oversee this small but lucrative portion of the family’s business are all Heptagram graduates themselves, well trained in the care and transport of First Age artifacts. THE RAGARA CALEL HOUSEHOLD The most diplomatic wing of a diplomatic family, the Ragara Calel family lives on a sprawling estate of ornate gardens in an otherwise wild section of Juche Prefecture. The Calels breed hunting dogs, spend much of their time at parties and happily entertain key politicians, merchants and Guild members for House Ragara. The household also soothes egos and calms ire after House Ragara has been forced to take strong actions against debtors. The younger members of this household travel extensively, throughout the Realm and Threshold alike, actively keeping up contacts and alliances with other Houses, reminding debtors of their debts to the House, and otherwise providing Banoba with excellent oversight and control of the House’s holdings. All Ragara households are aspected toward Earth. ECONOMICS For the last 600 years, House Ragara has effectively played banker to the other Dynastic Houses, making itself very wealthy in the process. The House has been called “the Imperial Bank” in jest for so long that the humor has evaporated, leaving nothing but an uncomfortably naked truth—particularly since the disappearance of the Empress. Though the Realm is suffering through the worst economy in its history right now, House Ragara still has jade accruing in its oversized vaults. House Ragara loans money to anyone, as long as it can get that money back with interest. That interest need not be jade either, as favors, goods and information can also count as interest. When dealing with patricians and subject princes, House Ragara does not hesitate to hire enforcers and mercenaries to get its money back. If brutality is called for in such situations, then so be it. The drastic actions House Ragara takes to punish debtors sometimes result in unnecessary violence and fi nancial losses, but the House has found that a single dramatic act of enforcement makes the next 10 debtors much more forthcoming with their jade. While members of House Ragara are fond of presenting an easygoing, friendly image, like a neighbor trying to help a person find ways of meeting financial obligations, the House does not forgive those who try to evade payment. From a mortal perspective, the difference between House Ragara and an organized crime family is negligible. Some Ragaras take particular satisfaction in loaning money to those who clearly won’t be able to repay it, simply so they can lure the debtor into repaying what he owes in some other valuable tender. Due to this practice, Ragara has an extensive list of favors it can call on from people in all walks of life. These favors are not left to memory, but carefully written down, catalogued, cross-referenced and constantly updated. The House might go years without mentioning such debts—leading a debtor to believe that the House has forgotten—only to call in the favor after the debtor has been promoted to a powerful new position. House Ragara is owed favors by thousands of mortals, hundreds of Dynasts, a respectable number of God-Bloods and Fair Folk, and at least three Anathema. House Ragara, of course, considers this knowledge absolutely classifi ed and protects it at least as rigorously as it does the House’s vast vaults of silver and jade. While House Ragara is aggressive in getting its money back from un-Exalted debtors (at times to the point of brutality), it uses a different set of rules entirely when dealing with its Dragon-Blooded cousins. No one in the House wants to encourage other Houses to use violence in matters of fi nance, as House Ragara has the most to lose from that kind of development. Accordingly, the House eschews the use of thugs or enforcers when dealing with Dynasts or other Exalted who owe it money. In fact, it won’t even refuse to do business with the debtor. It will continue to run him lines of credit until the House’s accountants and actuaries determine that the debtor has been loaned an amount equal to his total real property. At that point, the House leans heavily upon the debtor for extensive information and favors. It does not offer to eliminate or even reduce the Dragon-Blooded’s debt, and should he balk at any of the House’s demands, the House begins a campaign of whispers against him and closes down all lines of further credit. Ragara won’t do further business with him, nor will those allied with, or indebted to, House Ragara. This kind of treatment can destroy even a powerful Dynast’s finances and his reputation (not to mention his family’s reputation) in the space of a week or two. Once the problem gets this far out of hand, the debtor’s family often intervenes, pays Ragara the principal, interest and a small fee equal to fi ve percent of the total debt to drop the matter. At that point, the debtor and his family settle the matter privately, which frequently leads to the debtor’s sudden disappearance—either to the Threshold’s farthest yonder, or to his next incarnation. While most Dragon-Bloods pay their debts well before the situation degrades this far or simply let themselves fall into Ragara’s welcoming arms as their fi nancial viability collapses, some run for the Threshold. They do so desperately hoping to establish themselves well away from the network of Houses that they believe lured them into trouble. What they fi nd is that House Ragara’s Guild connections are much vaster than most Dynasts realize. Those who run often wind up as sustenance for wealthy Fair Folk nobles—or worse. Ragara frequently sends un-Exalted family members as auditors to visit its satrapies. These family members tour the countryside and perform a precise accounting of a province’s resources. They carefully calculate the precise amount they think the satrap can afford—while still allowing some room for the province to grow and invest—then they use the resulting fi gure to determine their tribute. Many satraps groan at the arrival of Ragara auditors, knowing that they’ll be squeezed to their fi nancial limits. Others are just grateful that the auditors at least take their economic growth into account. Even in the current Time of Tumult, the House is good about hiring high-end mercenaries to protect its investments, both from foreign threats and from the satraps’ own greed. Because of this, Ragara is the only House that still receives full payments from all of its tributary states. GOALS AND ALLIANCES House Ragara does not ally itself with the other Houses. Allies might be inclined to expect special treatment from the House that it is not prepared to extend. On the contrary, House Ragara would rather have all the other Houses indebted to it. Unfortunately, this dynamic is the key factor preventing Banoba from assuming the Scarlet Throne. Ragara’s lending policies served the House well for centuries, but now the other Dynastic Houses are too fearful of Ragara’s vast economic might to let it anywhere near the Scarlet Throne. House Ragara has long sought to get House Tepet in its debt, and circumstances have fi nally made that likely. Although Tepet has yet to approach the House for money, such a move is expected any day now. House Ledaal, on the other hand, makes the Ragaras nervous. Its members’ intellectual, analytical approach to everything, including fi nancial matters, has kept them well out of Ragara’s pockets, despite the House’s many attempts to lure them in. Besides money, House Ragara also extends its reach with strategic marriages. Ragara Felis, a high-ranking bureaucrat in the Thousand Scales, recently married Peleps Magaret, an inspired Dragon-Blooded sorcerer 140 years his junior. The two are very much in love, and their families took advantage of the situation to cement an alliance between some of the Peleps judicial influence and Ragara Guild interests. (The Guild is always delighted to trade goods and favors for favorable judicial rulings.) House Ragara’s most important alliance, bar none, is with the Guild. The Guild has money aplenty and needs House Ragara to get its wares into the Realm. The Ragaras own many ports and many port workers, particularly along the Blessed Isle’s north shore, making it very easy to arrange for mutually benefi cial business arrangements with the Guild. Working with the Guild is not without its occasional disadvantages, though. House Ragara occasionally fi nds the Guild’s blatantly amoral activities hard to stomach, for instance. Nonetheless, both parties are such powerhouses that each is willing to rely on diplomacy to see eye to eye rather than risk what could easily become a lengthy trade and influence war. ILLUSTRIOUS DYNASTS OF THE HOUSE RAGARA MYRRUN Grandson of the House founder himself, Ragara Myrrun surprised his family and declined an invitation to the Spiral Academy to enter the Cloister of Wisdom and the Immaculate Order immediately upon graduation. The best his family could say of the situation, besides commenting politely on his admirable piety, was that he was pursuing his true aptitudes. This was inarguably true. Myrrun is an extraordinarily talented martial artist. He mastered the entire Earth Dragon Style in less time than it took most students to learn Earth Dragon Form. In the century that followed, Myrrun mastered the other four elemental styles with similar ease, making him one of the only three living Immaculate grandmasters. Myrrun resides in the Palace Sublime, where he is considered something of a Realm celebrity and one of the most sought-after sifus on the Blessed Isle. When he is not teaching advanced students, he spends his time in meditation. He also writes training manuals used by martial artists throughout the Realm, giving Myrrun a great deal of sway in how martial arts (especially supernatural martial arts) are taught. The other monks see that he is not bothered by the world beyond the Palace Sublime so that his wisdom is not dulled by secular matters. As the Order sees it, Myrrun is nothing short of a Realm treasure, and one that must be protected. The Immaculate Order’s guiding Sidereals see him in a similar light. An ancient Chosen of Battles, long impressed with Myrrun’s aptitude for martial arts, has been grooming Ragara Myrrun for initiation into Sidereal martial arts. No Terrestrial Exalt has ever survived that harrowing initiation, but Anys Syn, Myrrun’s Sidereal sponsor, fi rmly believes that a careful regimen of meditation and close attention to diet could grant Myrrun the fortitude to manage such a feat. Anys Syn has already noted that Myrrun’s Essence blurs and warps to accept the Blossoming of the Perfected Lotus. If he lives through the experience, it will assuredly change Myrrun’s spiritual and physical nature in ways that elude even the Chosen of the Maidens. Were he to master his Essence to such an extent, and then pass those techniques along to other Terrestrial Exalted, the Bronze Faction would have an amazing weapon to unleash against the returning Anathema. A powerful elder Aspect of Earth, Ragara Myrrun has skin of flowing granite, cracked by age where a mortal would bear wrinkles. He no longer grows hair, and his eyes look more like darkly glittering cabochons of obsidian than organs of sight. RAGARA SORAS HERAL For many years, Ragara Soras Heral was a quiet, bookish boy. After he Exalted, his family assumed, correctly, that he would want to study at the Spiral Academy, where he graduated at the top of his class and proceeded on to advanced work in his family’s banks. When he met his mother’s cousin Banoba, both were smitten. It only helped matters that Heral knew exactly how to manage the family’s fi nances. Outside of Banoba, no one understands the current workings of House Ragara as well as Heral does, and that makes him one of the most powerful Dynasts in the Realm. Heral would like House Ragara to take the Scarlet Throne, if only because he knows he’s effectively next in line for leadership of House Ragara. To that end, he has recently begun lining up his pieces to make a serious play to get the throne for Banoba. Though everyone in the family knows of the loving relationship between Banoba and Heral, he is still obligated to marry and produce children, even though the very notion repulses him. He is currently set to marry a young Exalt from House V’neef, but he already has a contingency plan. A “body double” from House Mnemon (a young debtor quite pleased with the nature of his payment) has agreed to take his place in the marriage bed to relieve him of his reproductive duties. Heral occasionally serves his family as something of a celebrity instructor at the Spiral Academy, where his good looks and dramatic speaking style make him a favorite.